Hunt For The Obelisk
by ChrisDonati
Summary: A lot can change in 6 months. After an attack cripples the LEP it becomes clear that a deadly force is in play; A conspiracy reaching to the very top of the LEP and beyond, but nobody knows their true intentions. Not only will Artemis & Holly have to fight for Haven, theyll have to fight their own personal demons, demons that threaten to tear them apart. Permanently. Sequel to AQM.
1. Troll Hunting

**HUNT FOR THE OBELISK**

 _The events of this story take place 6 months after the events of Aquaria Major_

 **CIA Facility, unknown location within California, USA**

"We've got another one!" The loud voice boomed into the room. The voice was followed by a man, sauntering in as if he owned the place. He didn't, but he was, to all intents and purposes, the one in charge.  
"Another one? Seriously?" A woman replied, standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed. "We just got back from a retrieval, and now there's another one? Please, Masek, tell me you're not serious."  
Masek- which was actually his surname, his first name being Jim- laughed, before blowing his long, blonde fringe out of the way of his left eye, where it usually rested.  
"Unfortunately Scarlett, I'm deadly serious. We've got a Troll roaming its way through the Swiss Alps, and if we don't stop it then it might just stumble its way into a ski resort."  
"I heard ski resort!" Another man burst in, almost dragging a woman along with him.  
"And I heard Troll!" The woman chimed in, her voice unusually melodic. The others had come to realise that was genuinely how she spoke.  
"Cable. Jenna." Masek acknowledged. "Good, we're all here then. Troll loose in the Alps."  
"Why can't the LEP take care of this one?" Scarlett asked. "Surely they must have a magma chute in that region."  
"LEP is thin on the ground. If you hadn't realised, we're cleaning up more and more of their problems on the surface. I mean, the whole reason this unit was formed is because the LEP have had drastic cutbacks since the cyber attack that crippled them."  
"Alright Cable, I don't need a bloody history lesson" Scarlett said. Her arms were still crossed. "It would just be nice once in a while if the fairies would come and help us."  
"When do we leave?" Jenna asked, bouncing on her heels.  
Masek looked at his watch. "About 5 minutes ago."  
"Right then" Cable said. "I believe that signals time to kit up and get out there."

Cable was not a big man. He was tall and slim in reality, but the giant suit he had on made him look like a pro weightlifter. Bulked out with lightweight padding and carrying two giant blades on each arm, he was the heavy unit of the four. Masek looked him up and down as they entered a small, enclosed space they had nicknamed 'The Chamber'.  
"Suits you."  
"Thanks" Cable replied, taking his turn to look at Masek's outfit, namely the large pathfinder eyepieces he was wearing. "I could say the same about you."  
"It's time for an adventure!" Jenna shouted excitedly as she jumped into the chamber, followed by Scarlett, who was far less enthusiastic. They were both wearing what could be described as standard kit, though Scarlett was carrying a giant sniper rifle.  
"Remember Scarlett, we're here to capture the Troll, not kill it" Masek said. "I really don't want to have to deal with the paperwork. Or Artemis Fowl for that matter."  
"Nobody wants to deal with Artemis Fowl" Cable joked.  
"Except Scarlett" Jenna said, and Scarlett nearly slapped her. Instead, she simply glared.  
"Alright, that's enough" Masek said. "The longer we're in The Chamber, the closer that Troll gets to the ski resort." He looked up at a computer interface above him. "Computer, do you have the co-ordinates locked?"  
"Co-ordinates have been locked" The electronic voice said back.  
"Good" Masek said. "Beam!"  
Everyone in the chamber began to glow, before looking as if they were almost dissolving, melting away. And then they were gone, and The Chamber was empty.

Snow. There was so much snow. All around them, on the ground, in the air. Snow. Masek hated snow.  
"I see the ski resort" He said, looking through the glass piece that covered his right eye. "At least, I sort of see it. We had to come here in the middle of a minor blizzard."  
"Could be worse" Cable replied. "You could be wearing this thing."  
"I'll set up a post near the top of the hill" Scarlett said, "Just in case."  
"Good luck trying to use that thing in these conditions" Cable said, indicating Scarlett's sniper rifle. "And just make sure you don't shoot us."  
"Come on" Masek said, "The Troll is supposedly about 2 minutes down the hill from us. Scarlett, set up a vantage point. Cable, Jenna, with me."  
Cable and Jenna high fived, before Cable briefly wrapped his arm around her waist, giving her a light kiss. Masek just rolled his eyes.  
"I had to get stuck with the lovebirds" He muttered to himself.

They tracked down the mountain, following the general direction towards the ski resort, but so far they had been having no luck locating the Troll. The snowstorm was subsiding though, which gave Masek renewed hope that they hadn't completely missed it. It was then that he got a radio call from Scarlett.  
"I've found your Troll" She said, somewhat without emotion.  
"You have?" Masek replied, scanning the area.  
"About 20 degrees East of your location, 50 seconds. And I can tell you now, it is going absolutely mental. Trolls really do not like the light."  
"Agreed" Masek said, then turned to the other two. "We have our Troll, 20 degrees East, 50 seconds."  
"That close?" Cable asked. "Would have we would have heard it by now."  
Masek turned on his pathfinder, illuminating the world beyond the snow until it picked out the hulking silhouette of the Troll.  
"I have eyes on. Snow must be drowning out all of it stamps, because it is certainly going for it."  
Carefully, they moved forward, until the white gave way to a large shadow, thrashing about. It had yet to sense they were there, which was ideal.  
"Jenna, you know what to do" Masek said quietly, partially hiding himself between two halves of a recently smashed boulder. Jenna emerged behind the Troll, lining up her arm. Slowly, three darts began to emerge- once they were in place, Jenna fired, all of the darts impacting the base of the Trolls skull. There was a snap and bang as the electricity fizzed through the body of the Troll, and it collapsed in a heap.  
"Nice work" Masek said, waiting. The Troll remained still.  
"Can we tag it?" Jenna asked. Masek looked at the motionless beast, before giving a short nod. Jenna moved closer, taking it one step at a time. Eventually she knelt down beside the Troll, brining a stapler like device to its arm. She pushed the trigger and the device clamped down, securing the tag in place. Jenna stood back up.  
"Well that wasn't so difficult after all."

And then there was a hideous roar.

Jenna could only turn back around in time to see the giant Troll swing its arm at her, catching her full on and sending her flying through the air. It swung again, but this time Cable was in the way, holding one of his bladed arms up. The Troll tore away its arm in pain before slamming back down, only just missing Cable, who then sent another couple of hits the Troll's way.  
"Code red!" Masek shouted over his radio. "Mission parameters aborted. Shoot to kill!"  
A bullet shot through the air, hitting the Troll in its chest. The Troll seemed unfazed, until its fur began to ignite. A second bullet impacted, just below the jawbone, and the Troll went down, but this time a blazing inferno. Masek stood and started at the bonfire as Cable rushed over to Jenna.  
"Good work Scarlett" Masek said. "Good work."


	2. Thoughts And Feelings

**Fowl Manor, Ireland**

"Love is a foolish and irrational concept. I see no merit in it clouding a person's judgement."  
"OK Artemis" His father sighed. "You've made your point. All I'm trying to say is not to write it off completely. I know how you probably feel; There's too much work to be done, nobody will ever match your intellect, nobody will ever understand somebody like you. I felt like that too, once upon a time. But things change, and you will one day find somebody. I know you don't think you will, but I know you will."  
"Can we please get back to business?" Artemis asked sharply. His father sighed again, this time even more dramatically.  
"Fine" He said, looking away from Artemis and towards the silver console that stood in the middle of the room. "I still can't believe you managed to get an actual Energy Matrix. I know the theory about them has been around for years, but to have actually built one... It's a work of art. How did you get it?"  
"An old friend of mine."  
Artemis Sr.. looked back at his son briefly. Artemis couldn't decide if it was because he was surprised he had any friends, or if he doubted the legitimacy of the statement for a more serious reason.  
"I must meet this 'friend' of yours one day."  
"They are no longer with us" Artemis said. "That's why I now have their console."  
If Artemis Sr. had detected the bitterness in Artemis' voice, he didn't say anything. He did however stand up. Artemis thought he looked weary.  
"You are OK with the principle of the experiment, aren't you?"  
"Of course" Artemis said bluntly. "After all, I was the one that came up with the idea."  
"Quite true. Now if you don't mind, I have a video call to make to a certain Hammad Al-Bakari about our Sonar Deflection system."  
Artemis raised his eyebrows. "You're seriously considering selling our technology to terrorists?"  
"No. I'm calling him to politely tell him to take his offer and shove it somewhere it will never see the light of day again. Then I'm going to bomb his palace, which is more than the Americans seem to have managed."  
Artemis laughed shallowly as his father left the room. One of the many things he had learnt since spending more time with his father was that Fowl Industries owned a private army. A very powerful, well equipped army at that. And his father was turning into something of a military General, more and more every day.

Butler sat down next to Artemis. He had been present whilst Artemis had been with his father, but just as his bodyguard, not as his friend. Now they were alone.  
"'Love is a foolish and irrational concept'? You delivered that so well that I almost believed it."  
"I wasn't saying anything that wasn't true" Artemis replied. "Love is irrational and it's a good idea to try and avoid it if you are trying to stay emotionally disconnected to the world around you. I failed in that respect."  
"That might be something of an understatement" Butler said. "You ended up falling in love with an Elf."  
"Please don't say that whilst there's a chance my father could hear you."  
"You're going to have to tell him one day."  
"Yes, I know" Artemis said, trailing off in thought as he finished. Butler picked up on it.  
"Artemis? What is it?"  
Artemis took a deep breath. "I want to ask Holly to marry me."  
Butler's face did not betray any emotions, so Artemis couldn't tell if he was internally celebrating or scolding what he had just heard.  
"That is a big step Artemis."  
Artemis knew it was a big step. But it was something he had been thinking about for a long time. He wasn't in the business of rushing things.  
"I am aware of that. I've put a lot of thought into this."  
"Artemis" Butler said, raising an eyebrow. "You haven't seen her in 3 months. Ever since... You know."  
"That was her decision, and I respect the fact she wants space to deal with it. We've still been talking every day, so I see nothing wrong with the situation."  
"You should see her, in person, before you do anything like what you've suggested."  
"I agree" Artemis said. "But for now, we have work to do."

"This is what will make all of this worth it" Artemis said, touching the side panel of the Energy Matrix he had taken from Opal Koboi's hidden tunnels once she had been taken care of inside the Solenheim Radar Facility 6 months previous. It had always been a part of the plan to take the Energy Matrix. What hadn't been part of the original plan was Artemis Sr. getting involved, but with Holly back in Haven and Artemis around Fowl Manor so much more, he naturally gravitated to spending more time with his father. Within about a month or so, they had began inventing and experimenting together, and this would be the end goal of everything they had worked towards.  
"Think of everything you've done Artemis" Butler said. "Over the course of the last 3 months you've scammed 3 different corrupt businessmen out of €12M each, invented a new Radar evasion device and sold it to the UK and US militaries and even created a new division within the CIA to help retrieve fairies. And yet this is going to be make or break?"  
"Think, if we can channel the energy of a matrix and make it useful, we can finally put the final touches to the clone programme, and so many other possibilities."  
"I would have thought, with everything going on, that the clone programme was off the table?"  
"You, my friend, believe more has changed than it actually has."

Artemis Sr. walked back into the room just as Artemis (The other one) was connecting up the wires to the Energy Matrix. It was a complicated process, with several filters and bypass modules to go through, but they had to get the procedure absolutely right. Artemis Sr. looked over the arrangement, before turning to Butler.  
"If anybody calls saying that they're from the UN, hang up. Well, you can threaten them first, but just don't hand me the phone."  
"Understood" Butler said, standing back beside the door.  
"Now, Artemis" His father said, "I want to make sure one more time that you're fine with this. That you know what we're doing and what the risks are."  
"Believe me, father, I have more than thought about the risks. What this could mean if we are successful is worth far more than the risks that present themselves. Besides, there are so many filters and suppressors that I'm not overly convinced we will have enough energy to make the transfer a success."  
Artemis Sr. frowned. "You want to remove one of the suppressors?"  
"If it doesn't work this time around, then yes. But for now we can keep the configuration as it is."  
Artemis Sr.'s hand hovered over the side of the Energy Matrix, hesitant. Artemis spotted it.  
"For science" He said, unwavering.  
Artemis Sr. looked back at him. "For Science."

And then he flicked the switch.


	3. Detectives

**Well we've been everywhere except for Haven, I think it's about time we go there, don't you?**

 **Police Plaza, Haven**

The cyber attack on the LEP had crippled Haven, but what had been worse was the actual assault on Police Plaza that had followed. Corruption inside the LEP had run a lot deeper than anybody had thought, even with the previous discoveries of Ramon Stone and Chriton Salt. They still didn't know who was behind the attack, not fully, but they knew it had come from within the Police Force. And whoever they were working for commanded a large army, one that had laid siege to the station. They were defeated, but not without cost. 13 officers lost their lives whilst 1 more was permanently paralysed from the waist down. Artemis had been shot 3 times, but lived, namely because he was Artemis Fowl and his suit was custom made and Neutrino-proof. The firefight had affected everyone, but other than the officers who had been killed or disabled, it had probably affected Holly the most. She hadn't seen Artemis since that fateful day. Sure, they had been talking over video calls, but she hadn't seen him in person. She didn't know if she could.

Holly walked up to Foaly's ops booth. It was one of the few places that Holly felt safe within the LEP now that they knew anybody could secretly be a traitor. Foaly especially had gone super paranoid, and now only Holly and Artemis were ever allowed near his booth, and even then Holly was fairly sure he had lost at least some of the trust he had in them, as much as he tried to hide it. Nobody could be sure of anybody anymore. The ops booth had, at least, managed to survive through not just the hack but also the assault, meaning most of Foaly's equipment was still functional and basically powering the LEP. If that had gone too, Police Plaza may as well have shut its doors, which Holly always suspected was the aim of whoever orchestrated it. Eventually, after banging on the glass window of Foaly's ops booth for a while, he let Holly in.

"Hey Holly" Foaly said, retreating back to his seat. "It's nice to see you."  
"Likewise" Holly replied, taking a seat across from him. "Any news on the Suits?"  
Holly and Foaly had nicknames the people who had attacked the LEP as the 'Suits', because they were all disguised like wealthy businessmen, plus what could have been described as high end ski masks.  
"No, I'm still at a dead end. We can hypothesise that whoever orchestrated this has links to Haven Maximum Security, because all of the assailants that we killed were former inmates that had been released somewhere in the past month or two prior to the attack, all due to 'good behaviour'."  
"Which we believe to be doctored" Holly said.  
"Correct. Even if we couldn't UV blast the paper copies and see that they had been overlaid, the fact is some of these former inmates were violent murderers who should never have been released."  
"That still doesn't sound right to me" Holly said, searching her brain whilst her eyes aimlessly wandered around the room. "How can murderers serving life sentences be released and nobody bat an eyelid. Surely somebody would have realised."  
"All of the inmates that were released went through one prison officer, Ferran Goy."  
"Why didn't you say!" Holly nearly shouted, "We can go and arrest him!"  
"I didn't tell you because there was no point" Foaly replied, warily tailing off at the end. "Ferran Goy was murdered the day after the attack. Execution style too, Neutrino to the back of the head. But he was murdered up in the Haven Heights, miles from anywhere remotely populated, with no witnesses and absolutely no evidence to help us. No murder weapon, no fingerprints or footprints, nothing. There was nothing unusual in his financials, no reason we can think of why he would be leveraged. We have nothing. We know Ferran Goy got all the people out, but who he got them out for we have no idea."  
"So we're back to square one" Holly said quietly, sinking back into her seat.  
"Try square minus one" Foaly countered. "Because we haven't been able to get anywhere near figuring out where the hack came from, let alone who did it."  
"Why don't you ask Artemis?" Holly asked. Foaly shook his head.  
"Artemis has his own problems to deal with right now, mostly trying not to kill himself."  
"I'm sorry?" Holly's head shot up.  
"He didn't tell you?" Foaly asked. Then it dawned on him. "Oh, he didn't tell you."  
"Didn't tell me what?"  
"He swore me to secrecy. I thought he was going to tell you too. Though, now I think about it, I can see why he wouldn't want to."  
"What is he doing?" Holly grated. Foaly exhaled deeply, looked at Holly and then exhaled again.  
"He's hooking himself up to Opal Koboi's Energy Matrix to see if he can channel the energy successfully."  
"HE'S WHAT?!" Holly exploded.  
"Dear Frond, calm down Holly. I've seen the schematic for the equipment Artemis and his father have rigged up, and there are so many suppressors that I doubt he'll be able to channel enough energy to kill him anyway. It's a waste of time if you ask me."  
"I suppose" Holly said, rubbing her hand against her forehead, "If he's doing this with his father, it's not a surprise he didn't tell me. I can't say his father trusts me too much. I still wish I hadn't had to let Artemis Sr. in on the fact we all existed. Things would have been so much easier."  
"And yet somehow, despite letting him know that the world of The People exists under the ground, you still managed not to let him know that you and Artemis were together."  
"One bombshell at a time. Remember this was supposed to be part of the plan of letting Artemis' parents know I was pregnant."  
Holly stopped dead at the end of her sentence. Foaly walked over to her, realising what she'd just said to herself, and put a hand on her shoulder. Holly looked up at his, and repeated just the one word from her previous line.

"Was."

 ***BOMBSHELL KLAXON***


	4. The Siege Of Police Plaza

**Police Plaza**

 **Approx 3 months ago**

"I can't say today has been the most entertaining day in my life."  
"Paperwork is not entertaining" Holly replied, looking up from the stack of it she was sorting through. "You didn't have to be here."  
"Just because this isn't entertaining, doesn't mean it would be more entertaining if I were doing something different. Anyway, I want to be here with you."  
"I want you here with me" Holly said quietly. "Besides, you still scare at least 70% of the people in here."  
"You would think they would get used to me by now" Artemis said, "But their core fear of humanity is so ingrained, they'll always be wary of me. I know you still are sometimes."  
"I try not to be."  
"You'll never get rid of it. It's an evolutionary trait, so don't bother fighting it."  
Holly looked at the time. "5 more minutes and we can get out of here."  
"Oh good."  
"I've just got to input a few files into the database, then we'll head out and grab something to eat. There's a new place that just opened not far from here, I was thinking of trying it out."  
"I won't disagree" Artemis said, leaning back in his chair, so much that Holly wondered how it hadn't snapped yet. She went back to her computer, and began sorting the different file numbers. It wasn't fun, but it was necessary. She was just about to submit the database amendments...

And then her computer crashed. And then the computer next to her crashed too. And then the next one. Within 15 seconds, the entire system had gone down. Most of the officers filled the air with their groans and complaints about the inconvenience. But Artemis was now sat upright in his seat, taking notice.  
"How unusual" He began. "Too unusual. This is an attack."  
"An attack?" Holly questioned. Artemis scooted over to her computer and began tapping away.  
"Somebody has hacked the entire LEP framework and brought the system crashing down. The question is why? They haven't stolen any data, haven't deleted any either. They haven't used any of the framework's systems. They've just crashed everything, made the computers unusable. Which is great if you want to put everyone in the dark, metaphorically, but why? Unless... Of course! It's a distraction. Everyone here is running around like headless animals, it's exactly what they want."  
"Artemis, what are you talking about?" Holly asked, unable to decipher half of what he was saying to himself.  
"This entire thing is a distraction so they can attack Police Plaza. Where is the safest place here?"  
"Foaly's ops booth, of course."  
"Good" Artemis said, practically picking Holly off the floor- despite her protests- and carrying her over there. Everyone else, despite being in a certain amount of disarray, saw Artemis run for the hills and started to figure out that this wasn't just an inconvenience, but a problem. They knew something was now badly wrong.

That was when the doors blew off their hinges.

Everyone except for Artemis stopped in their tracks as the masked fairies began to pour into the bullpen. Most managed to regain their senses quick enough to return fire, but the entire room was now lit up in a deadly firefight. It took just seconds for the entire place to descend into chaos. Holly unclipped her gun from her waist and began firing into the crowd, but they were now too far away from the main action. Artemis kept running, and running, until he almost ran straight into a group of attackers coming from the other end of Police Plaza. Only a sudden veer right into a weapon locker room stopped them from being seen.  
"What in Frond's name is going on?" Holly asked, once they were inside and had barricaded the door.  
"Not sure" Artemis replied. "I don't know who these people are or what they want, but this was orchestrated very well. Almost too well not to have had help from the inside."  
"Great, more corrupt cops."  
"On the inside does not necessarily mean officers. There are plenty of different jobs within a police station, especially one as big as-"  
A loud bang shattered the atmosphere, as well as blowing out one of the walls to the room. A burst of gunfire emerged from the smoke, hitting Artemis not once or twice, but 3 times. Holly instantly returned fire, but by the time the attackers that had blown through the door had all retreated to cover, Artemis was already up. Holly looked at him briefly, with a half confused, half relived expression.  
"Would you believe me if I told you that my suit is Neutrino resistant?"  
"Considering you're still standing, yes."  
Holly then moved to pull over a rack of equipment, her own makeshift cover. Artemis followed suit, though he required a rather substantially larger filing cabinet to shield himself.  
"I'm going to need your help to hold them off" Holly said in Artemis' direction, exchanging fire with several fairies camped behind the giant hole in the wall. Holly knew Artemis hated using guns, but even he would know they were too outnumbered for him not to.  
"There are substantially more of them than I thought" Artemis said, expertly picking a couple of brave attackers who had tried to enter the room. They may have been outnumbered, but now Holly and Artemis were beginning to thin the herd somewhat.  
"You're actually quite good at this" Holly replied, something of a smile creeping onto her face. They were pushing the invasive forces back.

And then there was another explosion.

Holly had been camped not only behind an ammo rack, but beside one of the side walls. The blast tore through that wall, propelling Holly through the air at a great velocity. She collided straight into Artemis, knocking them both to the floor, but also knocking Holly unconscious. Artemis, though groggy, managed to put his body between Holly and the new wave of attackers, but with them now coming from two different angles, Artemis knew their time was running out. He managed to take two more out before being blinded by a bright light. There was a scream, a crash, and suddenly the light was gone, and there was someone reaching out to him. An old ally.  
"We have to get out of here" He said, nervously glancing around.  
"I know, Salt" Artemis replied. "But we have to get Holly to a hospital, she might be hurt."  
Chriton Salt hesitated a minute, before coming over to them. He put his fingers to Holly's neck.  
"She still got a decent pulse, and her breathing is good. She's just unconscious, we can deal with her later."  
"I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that" Artemis replied. "She's pregnant."  
"Oh" Salt said, shaking his head. "Well I have to hand it to you Artemis, you do know how to complicate a situation. Hospital it is."  
Salt led Artemis out of the room. They met very little resistance as they moved back through the LEP building, out the rear entrance and into a waiting vehicle. That was mainly because most of what would have been the resistance were laying on the floor, very, very dead.  
"Your work I take it?" Artemis asked as he secured Holly into the back seat, whilst Chriton jumped into the driver's seat up front.  
"Nasty little device Flower gave me" Salt replied, starting the ion drive engine. "Hadn't had to use that in a long time before today."  
"Why are you even here?" Artemis asked, growing even more serious. "You should be enjoying the retirement I helped you attain."  
"I was" Salt said, flooring it. Even as he spoke to Artemis, he kept his full concentration on the road ahead. "And once this is over, I will go straight back. But I'm still dialled in to all of the only channels I used to frequent, usually because I enjoy laughing at some fool's deluded plan to get rich or similar. But this, the chatter on this was big, and it was building. I owe a lot to you and Holly for getting me out of the mess I put myself in, so I thought to myself that I would repay the favour this one time. I can see that you needed it."  
"Yes" Artemis said, holding on as Salt threw the vehicle round a corner.  
"Now onto more pressing matters. Holly is pregnant? I take it that was your work?"  
"Yes..." Artemis said warily. "Though I do not see how that is a more pressing matter."  
"How does it even work?" Salt continued, completely ignoring him. "I mean you're like 2 and a half feet taller than her, how do you-"  
"Please stop talking and drive faster" Artemis interrupted him.  
"No need" Salt said. "We're here." He slammed on the brakes so hard it almost flung Artemis through the back of the seat infront of him, but just about managed to stop himself. He scooped Holly out of her seat and went to get out of the vehicle, but before he left;  
"Are you going back to Police Plaza?" Artemis asked.  
"No" Salt replied definitively. "I'm going back to drinking cocktails and letting everyone believe that I'm dead. This is your fight now."

Artemis had to wait 3 hours for any news. 3 hours of sitting, thinking over the possibilities. News had filtered through in that time, the LEP had managed to defeat the group that had attacked Police Plaza. Most of them were either dead or incapacitated, and those that survived had run away. It was a shallow victory, because the damage had already been done. Eventually, once everything else had calmed down, a single elfin doctor walked out of Holly's room. Artemis stood up; He was sure that going to his full height intimidated the already nervous looking doctor, but at that moment in time he didn't care.  
"How are they?"  
"Holly is fine" The doctor replied, as professionally as he could manage. "She'll have plenty of bruises and aches, but otherwise she is OK."  
The doctor paused. Artemis' heart sank, he knew exactly what was coming next. The way the doctor looked at him, he knew that Artemis knew.  
"I'm really, really sorry to have to tell you this. She lost the baby."  
Artemis didn't let his face betray his emotions, something the doctor seemed eternally grateful for.  
"I'll let you know when you can see her" The doctor near whispered, retreating very quickly back into Holly's hospital room. Now alone, Artemis turned around, put his fist through the glass window behind him and then walked straight out of the hospital. He knew that when he came back, things would never be the same again.


	5. Odd Pieces

**If you think what has already happened in this story is shocking, then you better prepare for what is coming over the rest of it.**

 **Undisclosed location within the Swiss Alps. Present Day.**

Unfortunately, once you've torched a raging Troll, you can't just leave it to burn and go home. You have to wait for it to burn itself out. So Masek, Jenna, Cable and even Scarlett had been sitting and wandering and sliding around in the snow, waiting for the fire to go out. However, there is a lot of Troll for the fire to go through, even in the cold, icy conditions of the Alps, and they had been waiting for a long time before it finally stopped. Masek had then left Jenna to look over what remained of the Troll. Whilst everyone had been waiting for Jenna to finish her observations, Masek had been rolling a benign snowball for himself. In the end, he didn't get the chance to use it.  
"Hey, I've found something!" Jenna shouted across the snow. Masek picked his head up and walked over to her.  
"What do you have?"  
"Something very weird" She replied. The fact that Jenna was acting fairly normal told Masek that it was something quite serious too.  
"This Troll has two tags in it."  
"Two tags?" Masek repeated. "Did you accidentally put two tags into the Troll?"  
"No, only one" Jenna replied. "Which means this tag came from another time. We've encountered this Troll before."  
"Ha, maybe we caught it, let it go back down to Haven and it somehow managed to get back to the surface. Now that would be something."  
"I wish" Jenna said. "I've already scanned the tag. 00313-3."  
"I'm not good with the tag numbers" Masek admitted. Jenna grew even more serious, and now Masek was worried.  
"Do you remember the Troll we caught a couple of days ago?"  
And then it dawned on him.  
"You have to be kidding me? But that Troll was in containment. How did it get out? More importantly, how did it get from California to the Alps?"  
"Someone wanted to draw us out here" Cable said, joining the party along with Scarlett.  
"But why?" Scarlett asked. "Setting a Troll on the loose seems a bit pointless when they know we'd just catch or kill it again."  
"No, that's not why they did it" Masek said, it suddenly clicking in his mind. "They wanted us away from HQ. Whoever did this would've had to break in and release the Troll, so they know where we are. But now with us out here, they can break in with the place unguarded."  
"Oh god" Cable said, catching on to what Masek had just said.  
"We have to get back" Scarlett said. "We have to stop whoever has done this."  
"I agree" Masek said, and then indicated to Scarlett. "Prepare the transport. I've got to call Artemis."

 **Fowl Manor, Ireland**

Artemis could feel the energy coursing through his veins. Everything around him, every sense was heightened. He felt powerful, yet transcendent. It was as if his body was no longer his, that he was a god looking over himself. It was an almost ethereal process, one that he wanted to get lost in forever. He closed his eyes, letting his the energy overload his body's pleasure senses, making him feel as if he was about to burst from the power he could feel in every nerve ending. He could see the universe, laid before him. Every star, planet and satellite, there all in one space. Every nebula, every supernova. Everything that was, everything that is, everything that would come to be, it was all there.

But everything eventually comes to an end.

As the power of the machine ramped down, Artemis could feel the sensation leaving him. Soon all that had made the experience so different had been replaced with normality. He opened his eyes, and nothing was any different to how he had started.  
"How do you feel?" Artemis Sr. asked, unhooking him from the Energy Matrix.  
"Unfortunately, I feel quite normal" Artemis replied.  
"It didn't work?"  
"It worked for a time" Artemis said, sitting down. "Whilst I was in there, the feeling was something near indescribable. But it didn't hold. As soon as the machine was turned off, the feeling was no longer there."  
"Hmm, sounds like more of a compressor problem than a suppressor problem."  
"I agree" Artemis said. Suddenly his phone began to ring. Butler looked at him.  
"Would you like me to get that?"  
"What does the caller ID say?" Artemis asked. He was very particular about who he allowed to call him. Anyone not in his contacts list was expressly banned. The only exception he had ever had to that rule was Opal Koboi, but then that was because he was orchestrating a plan to have her killed, which had been successful.  
"Masek" Butler replied. "I feel you should have this one."  
"I agree, again" Artemis replied, catching the phone as Butler threw it to him. "You have reached the phone of Artemis Fowl II."  
"Artemis" Masek said down the line, "We have a situation."  
"That was not a difficult assumption for me to make" Artemis said. "You only ever call when there is a situation at hand."  
"Yeah well this one really takes the cake. We believe someone has broken into Agency HQ and somehow released a Troll into the world. We don't know exactly why yet, but we think somebody might have done it to gain unrestricted access whilst we're out here, unable to stop them. We're setting up a bridge now to go back, but I don't know if it'll be too late."  
"Clever" Artemis said. "Whoever has done this, assuming your theory is correct, would need both a knowledge of the headquarters and of fairies, and a reason to attack your agency. I don't need to tell you who the prime suspect will be."  
"I know, but he's dead."  
"If there's something I've learned over the past year, it is that people tend not to stay dead for very long."  
"The bridge is ready" Masek said. "I've got to go."  
"Of course" Artemis replied. "But Masek, whatever is going on, it has to be fixed. We both know how dangerous he can be."


	6. Chasing Shadows

**If you wondered where I went, I had my final Uni exams so I kinda had to put my effort into them. But now I am back, so normal service can resume!**

"The bridge is set" Cable said to Masek as he joined the rest of the group. "Let's go toast some bad guys."  
"Remember you're still wearing that suit" Masked said back. "First thing we do once we're back at HQ is pick up some weapons from the store room. Then we go hunting."  
"That's if there is anybody actually still there" Scarlett said.  
"We have to assume they are still there. We can't take any chances."  
Despite the conversation, Masek had been mentally counting down in his head. Once he reached 15, he and everyone else zapped out of the atmosphere. An instant later, they were all back at HQ.  
"I will never get used to that" Cable said, hastily stepping out of his suit. Masek followed.  
"Oh come on" Jenna replied. "Teleportation is fun!"  
"Only you will ever find that fun darling."  
"Coast is clear" Scarlett interrupted. She still had her sniper rifle, which was their best form of defence at the present time.  
"Nothing seems out of place" Masek said, looking around. "Let's head to the weapon store and arm up. Scarlett cover us. Everybody on red alert."

The first protocol of HQ being under attack was for the 4 strong team to split up. Whilst you would like strength in numbers, splitting up allowed more area to be covered quicker, so that they could catch whoever was behind this, if they were still there. Masek had taken the East section of the building, which was largely inhabited by endless corridors and empty rooms, useful for if they ever had an expansion, but not right at the moment. It gave potential for someone to hide, however. But if they were searching for something, why would they hide in an empty conference room? As Masek walked along the corridor, it gave him more time to think about who 'they' actually were. Artemis had known what he was thinking. Somebody who knew where HQ was and had reason to want to take something from them. But the only person who fit that description was supposedly dead, having been shot in the chest at point blank range before being thrown off a 20 story building into a river below. Masek would know, being the person who did both the shooting and the pushing. The problem was, even if that person had risen from the dead to take revenge against the Fairy Recovery Unit, Masek didn't actually know what they were after. For now though, finding the person or people responsible was the only thing he cared about. Why they were doing it could wait until later. All of this thinking wasn't helping him, he realised as he cleared out the final one of the empty rooms. It was occupying his mind. That didn't change the fact that his area was empty, and he needed to call it in.  
"East section is clear" He said into his radio. "I'm going to move into the North section and help Jenna out."  
But when he released the button to hear a reply, all he found was ear piercing static.  
"Do you copy?" He asked, trying to get through again. "Anybody, do you copy me?"  
And then came the gunshots. 3 of them, a burst of fire. Then another 3, grouped together. Masek began running towards the sounds, not knowing how many of there were. They were definitely coming from the North sector, so if they were firing, they were probably firing at Jenna. He had to get there fast. Holding his gun in one hand, he began sprinting back down the corridors, hoping to get there as quickly as possible. The North section was mainly storage room, and if someone wanted something from HQ, they would probably be able to find it there.  
"Anyone?!" Masek shouted as he went through the perimeter. He slowed down, realising that shouting probably wasn't his best option if other people were there. He began to creep around, taking each corner steadily. It was still so quiet, but how? Surely with people, with the gunfire...? Soon Masek had walked all the way through the sector, twisting and turning through the passageways. Nothing. Once he had reached the very end of the sector, Masek found himself in a place known as the 'Artefact Room'. In essence, it was a room where they stored all fairy objects they recovered on missions, and in due time they could be returned to their rightful owners. Half the time they just gave it back to the LEP and let them deal with it. The LEP may have been experiencing problems, but Masek and the team were not their babysitters. Masek took a deep breath, then turned into the doorway.

This room was different.

Somebody had been in the Artefact Room, that much was clear. Boxes had been emptied and draws tossed. Everything was unlocked, most by force, and the contents scattered and shattered across the floor. It was an absolute mess, but it was not a consistent mess. There was one corner where things were calmer, with just the one box hanging out. Masek recognised that box. Though he hadn't had much time to study it, box 1131 had contained an artefact known only as 'The Obelisk'. He didn't know what it did, but the LEP had been antsy about getting it back. If he was correct, it was now gone.  
"Fancy seeing you here" A voice said, quietly, but loud enough for Masek to hear it. It was a voice that he recognised. That settled it then.  
"Maxwell" Masek said in a low, gravelly tone. He went to turn around, but stopped when he felt a gun pressed into his back.  
"Please Jim, do you have to call me by my surname? I mean I know you like yours, but really, Corey is fine."  
"What are you doing here?" Masek asked. "Whatever you're looking for, you won't find it."  
"Oh I already found what I'm looking for, because I was looking for you. You didn't think all of this was me, did you? I'm not the only person here. I hate mess. No, I was looking for you this entire time. Would have been nice of you to stay inside the East section, where you were supposed to be, but I suppose the sound of gunfire naturally draws you out. Anyway, we're together now, so let's have a little chat."  
"It would be nice if you weren't holding a gun to me" Masek replied.  
"True, but I can't take any chances. I'm afraid the gun stays."  
"Where's Wyatt?"  
That question seemed to rattle Maxwell. The gun slipped down Masek's back slightly, and he could hear Maxwell shift his feet.  
"Wyatt Munroe is dead. You killed him, remember?"  
"The fact you're here would suggest otherwise. Wyatt was a member of our team, you were not. Only he would know how to get into this building."  
"Granted, that's a good point. We'll just have to agree to disagree. Anyway, I can't stay, though it really was nice to talk to you again."  
"Wasn't much of a conversation" Masek said. "You barely spoke."  
"You said a lot though" Maxwell replied. "Even if you didn't realise it."  
There was a pressure release as the imprint of the gun disappeared from Masek's back. He turned around instantly, his own gun already out infront of him, but there was nobody there. The room was devoid of life except from himself.

And, as Jim Masek scanned the area, the little voice in the back of his head made him wonder if there was ever anybody actually there at all.

 **And so we start to see, that everything is not as it seems. But who are Wyatt Munroe and Corey Maxwell, and what do they want? That is the question that has to be solved...**


	7. Unravelling The Conspiracy: Part I

**As our intrepid heroes work on getting to the bottom of the conspiracy that's shaken Haven to its core, we get introduced to yet another OC in the form of Cecily Silverfin, and she is one of my favourites. Infact, this story has been great for OC creation, I had a lot of fun with it. There's another OC that'll be introduced near the end of the story that could rival Cecily for top spot, but we won't meet Eden for a while yet.**

 **For now, enjoy this.**

Holly sat at her computer, staring at the screen. For her, the best way to get around her emotions was to dive into her work, and so that was exactly how she was going to play it. The curious case of Ferran Goy was still bothering her. It all fit together far, far too nicely to have been just his idea. The fact he had subsequently been murdered only furthered Holly's belief that he was being used somehow. They couldn't find any motives, nor anything that could have been used as blackmail, but there had to be something, something they were missing. There just had to be.  
"Hey Holly" A quiet, unassuming voice said. It brought a smile to Holly's face. Ever since the attack on the LEP, the entire police force had been understaffed- That's what happens when several of them are murdered. To help stop the entire LEP from falling apart, several rookies had been promoted early from the academy, and each given a mentor to help them along. Holly, holding the rank of Major, was given one of the brightest recruits, a young elf by the name of Cecily Silverfin. She was somewhat shy to everyone around her, but got on well enough with Holly that she had finally started to come out of her shell a bit. She was also incredibly smart, not just for her complex problem solving skills, but just with the way she went about her everyday life. She slightly reminded Holly of Artemis.  
"Hey Cecily" Holly replied, indicating that her protégé should take a seat. "I haven't seen you all morning. Did you get called away?"  
"Artemis' coffee machine broke. You know, the one you like because it dispenses real coffee. I've spent all morning fixing it whilst still trying to hide it from everyone else. There's a 94% chance that they would confiscate it if it was revealed you had it here."  
That was another thing- Cecily dealt with everything in percentages.  
"Thank Haven for the coffee machine" Holly said. "Now that you're here, Cecily, you can help me with something. I want you to help me solve the mystery of Ferran Goy."  
"Who's Ferran Goy?" Cecily asked, and Holly repeated everything that she had already been told about Goy and what had been going on in the prison. Cecily nodded her head the whole way through, though her eyes told the story of someone who was paying very close attention to every word Holly said.  
"Ferran Goy could not have been the ringleader" Cecily said, once Holly stopped talking. "It is not uncommon for ringleaders to try and assume a low profile, but Ferran Goy's position would not have given him nearly enough access. His main powers were formulating the release of the prisoners, which would imply that he was responsible for setting them up with equipment and accommodation in which to reside before the attack took place. It is possible that on their release, the prisoners would have been told by Ferran Goy to contact another person who would be a part of the chain. Ferran Goy was the middle man."  
"That's pretty much what we were thinking" Holly said. "But we don't know who Goy could have been working for or with, or what his motivations were."  
"If there are no links to a group or individuals inside the Lower Elements, is it possible that Ferran Goy could have had contact with somebody on the surface?"  
"The surface?" Holly asked back. "The surface. It could be worth a shot."

Bringing up the activity logs of a deceased Prison Officer should not have been as difficult as Holly and Cecily found it to be. It only added to the suspicion of Ferran Goy that his files had been sealed pending an investigation, an investigation both Holly and Cecily knew wasn't actually taking place. Eventually, after some careful hacking, Holly had managed to break through the firewall and gain access to the records they needed.  
"The prisoners in question began to get released about 2 months prior to the attack" Holly said. "So we need to probably start somewhere around there and work it backwards. It's unlikely he would make first contact after the plan was put into action."  
Cecily began to go through the records, not that there was much to take in. Ferran Goy, it seemed, barely left the prison. But they kept going, waiting for the moment they found something of use.  
"Ferran Goy is not an interesting person" Holly said.  
"Or someone is trying to hide his true activity from us."  
"I would agree, and the fact they sealed his file tells us there's something in here that the people behind this are trying to hide."  
"Here!" Cecily nearly shouted out, pointing her finger to the screen. "About 2 and a half months prior to the attack, Ferran Goy made a trip to the surface."  
"Prisoner retrieval" Holly said, looking into the note. "Not something he should have been doing."  
"All it says here is that the prison were low on staff and that Goy was the most senior member available."  
"Who was the prisoner?"  
Cecily began delving deep into the file, bringing up several windows on her computer.  
"The prisoner was a Sprite by the name of Axl Snow. Went in on a charge of breaching the perimeter to the surface whilst carrying an unlicensed Neutrino. A fairly standard thing to go down for, not like any of the other prisoners that were let free."  
"Was he released early too?"  
"No" Cecily said, highlighting a small paragraph at the bottom of the screen for Holly's effect. "Axl Snow was murdered in the prison kitchen, stabbed. It says here that a culprit was never found as overcrowding of the kitchen area made an ID match impossible."  
"Cecily" Holly said, pointing to the screen herself. "Look at the date of when Axl Snow was murdered. It's the same date as the LEP attack. That can't be a coincidence. We have to tell Foaly."

"Holly, Cecily, it's nice to see the two of you" Foaly said as he let them into his ops booth. "You've found something, haven't you?"  
"Oh yes" Cecily said, half hiding herself behind Holly. For some reason, Holly had found out that Cecily was somewhat scared of the centaur.  
"We found a lead on Ferran Goy" Holly said, seeing as Cecily wasn't going to explain it herself.  
"You do?!"  
"5 and a half months ago Ferran Goy took a trip to the surface, to retrieve a prisoner by the name of Axl Snow. Nothing too unusual in that itself, but we also checked the timing log for when Goy checked in and out of the terminal. He was on the surface for 6 hours."  
"What in Frond's name would he be up there for 6 hours for?" Foaly asked. "He must have had prior arrangements. This could have been the first orchestration in their plan, get Goy up to the surface for some reason. Do we know what part Axl Snow plays into all of this?"  
"No" Holly said, "But I'm fairly certain he played some part. He was killed in prison on the day of the LEP attack."  
"That can't be a coincidence" Foaly said, and began typing into his computer system. "But this still doesn't change the fact that there is somebody higher up in the chain. Axl Snow was a lowlife criminal and nothing more, there was no way he could set this into motion. I take it there hasn't been any progress on why Ferran Goy is involved in this?"  
"No" Holly and Cecily said in unison.  
"Then Axl Snow may be our best bet. Criminal like that, it wouldn't surprise me if he was easily persuaded to play his part."  
"Myself and Holly..." Cecily started, but trailed off when she realised Foaly was actually listening to her.  
"We wonder if Goy and Snow met with a mud man whilst taking their extended time on the surface" Holly finished for her. "Goy and Snow could have conspired anywhere, but to take time out on the surface would indicate that he was meeting with somebody very much human."  
Foaly rubbed his temples. "That can't be discounted. But he could just as easily have been meeting with an exiled one of The People. Either way, meeting on the surface would indicate they were meeting with someone big. That could very well be the ringleader."  
"Well I know for one I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing about it. I say we start by trying to find more about Axl Snow, and what role he could have played here. I know his personal items are still being held in Haven Maximum Security, it's protocol to keep them for 6 months before they're either turned over to the police or collected by family, or incinerated if neither option applies. I checked his file, he had no living relatives, and I'm fairly sure he was shanked in the prison kitchen so that there wouldn't be much of an investigation into him."  
"This is a conspiracy Holly" Foaly said. "Remember that. Normal procedures don't apply here. You can't walk into Haven MaxSec and expect his things to still be there. We don't know who inside that prison could be a part of this. I have seen more evidence go missing or be destroyed on this case than anything else in my whole life. Every time I try to run a trace on something or try to crack the code that broke our system, I'm either misdirected or locked out. Something here is very wrong Holly, mark my words. Just please, for the love of Frond, be careful."


	8. MaxSec

**The Conspiracy tightens its rope... Also, prison. Because I've always wanted to write a scene in a prison. Welcome to MaxSec!**

 **Haven Maximum Security Prison (MaxSec), Haven Lower Plateau.**

"We don't usually get visitors to the prison" The overly cheery prison officer, Millian Irvine, said to Holly and Cecily as they passed through security.  
"Why not?" Holly asked. "Surely officers want to talk to their suspects?"  
"This is MaxSec" Irvine said to Holly, as if she needed reminding. "Only people that get put in here are 100% guilty. There's no need for a talk; Most are just left to rot in here until they see out their sentences or die. It's not a pleasant place to be, less so for the prisoners than for me though, I have to say. I get a padded room with a TV, they get a cell."  
"We're here to look at the personal effects of a prisoner who was here between 3 and 6 months ago. Axl Snow."  
"Axl Snow?" Irvine said, lifting an eyebrow. "Now there is an interesting character. 23 years as a MaxSec officer and I'd never seen anybody like him before."  
"How do you mean?" Cecily asked.  
"He didn't belong here, and he knew it. For a start, the crimes he was convicted of should not have landed him here. Unlawful trip to the surface and unlicensed firearm? Bah! I've seen worse offenders than him end up in District prisons. But also, the way he walked around the place during breaks and lunches and free time, shouting about how he could set people free and show them a world outside of their lives. We called him 'The Preacher'. All the other prison guards liked him, got on with him infact. I tended to stay away though, he felt a bit odd."  
"How so?" Holly asked, finally clearing security.  
"Just a gut feeling I suppose. He stuck out like a Pixie inside a Dwarf convention, that kind of thing. And for every prisoner that liked him, he wound up a few too. I'm honestly not surprised somebody decided they'd finally had enough and killed him. If I was already spending half my life behind bars, I probably would have too."

Irvine led them silently through the back of the prison and into storage, a vast expanse of crates, boxes and shelves. Haven Maximum Security was a large prison and held many inmates, but as they had to hold evidence for the LEP and for those fairies now deceased, the storage unit had to be able to fit everything and somehow keep some kind of system going.  
"Just how do you find everything in here?" Holly asked. "I wouldn't know where to start."  
"Everything is computer controlled. You just type in the name and ID code of the prisoner, and the cranes bring everything to you. Like so."  
Irvine began tapping buttons on a keypad, so fast that Holly had a hard time keeping up with him. Prisoner codes were all 21 digits, Holly knew that, but she didn't realise that anybody could type so fast that 21 digits passed in 5 seconds. Then again, Irvine had said he'd been working in the prison for over 20 years. It was probably second nature to him.  
"Here we go" He said, and watched along with Holly and Cecily as the clear rectangular box was placed right infront of them.  
"I want one of those" Cecily sad. "Unfortunately, there is only a 0.2% chance I'll ever be allowed to have one."  
As Cecily pined over the crane system, Millian Irvine was busy typing yet more numbers to get the lock on the box to open. Once it did, he put his hand in to start removing items, but he quickly stopped, a frown spreading across his face.  
"This isn't right" He said. Holly moved closer.  
"What isn't right?"  
"This. These aren't Axl Snow's personal items. I would know, because I was the one that catalogued them in the first place. The box has a codex lock on it too, only people inside the prison would have access."  
"Just like Foaly warned us, somebody has already been tampering with the evidence."  
"Ferran Goy" Cecily said quietly. "Ferran Goy would have been the one who changed the evidence."  
"Ferran Goy was also murdered."  
"Yes" Cecily replied. "But he was murdered the day after. He would have had time to change the evidence whilst he was still here on the day of Axl Snow's murder."  
"So" Holly said. "Now we need to plan our next move."  
"We could look in Axl Snow's cell."  
"He was murdered months ago, somebody else could have taken that cell and destroyed any evidence."  
"No, Axl Snow was kept in G wing, which stopped taking new prisoners because there weren't as many being taken in."  
"She's right" Irvine said. "Nobody would have been inside that cell since."  
"Not unless Ferran Goy or somebody else tampered with that too" Holly said. "Either way, I do want to take a look. We won't know unless we try."

G wing inside Haven Maximum Security was a dark and gloomy place, barely lit with concrete walls and the never ending sensation that all of this was done purposefully to make all of the prisoners depressed about their life choices. Half of the cells were empty, such was the situation that prisoners had stopped being inducted. So now it wasn't just dark and gloomy, it was creepy too.  
"Here we are" Irvine said, unlocking a large steel door. "Just shout if you need anything, I'll wait out here."  
Holly and Cecily moved into the cell. There was nothing overtly out of place on first glance; There was a bed, a sink and a toilet. That was pretty much it. There was a window that let some light in, but it was completely barred over.  
"This is wonderful" Holly said, looking under the thin mattress, but there was still nothing out of the ordinary. "Remind me never to end up in MaxSec, either as a job or a prisoner."  
"I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who wants to be in MaxSec" Cecily said. "Even the most hardened of prisoners find it tough. I should know."  
Holly nodded. Cecily had spent 2 months inside MaxSec's A wing as part of a Psychology research paper she was doing during her early days of being in the academy. She never talked much about it though, and Holly was beginning to understand why.  
"Still, this cell looks empty. There's nothing in here. Axl Snow apparently didn't have any possessions here of any kind."  
"It was worth a try" Cecily said. They both turned to leave, but as Holly began to walk, her foot got caught on something on the floor. She looked down, and realised one of the panels in the floor was loose.  
"Now this is interesting" Holly said, bending down. "The flooring in MaxSec cells are supposed to be solid, so why is there a loose panel in this one."  
Cecily joined Holly, and between the two of them they managed to tear the floor panel out from its housing.  
"Woah" Holly said, looking wide-eyed at what was below.  
"Gold" Cecily expanded. "2 bars of gold. I don't think it's difficult to determine why Axl Snow became a part of the conspiracy."  
"Millian!" Holly called the officer, but she got no response. "Millian?"  
Holly got up and walked to the door, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the large pool of blood over the floor.  
"Oh no" She whispered. She burst out of the cell, but it was too late. Millian Irvine was already dead, his lifeless, drained body cold against the hard floor. "He talked. Of course, he started telling us about Axl Snow. That's why they killed him. Cecily! Sound the alarm."  
But as soon as Holly said that, she felt a hand roughly grab her by the arm.  
"Keep moving, don't sound the alarm."  
He was dressed up in a prison officer's uniform, with a cap on to obscure his face, but Holly knew that voice anywhere.  
"Salt? What the hell are you doing here?"  
"Apparently, I'm saving your life once again. Just keep moving. They'll know something is wrong so I have to get you out of here."  
"You didn't?!"  
"No, I did not kill Millian Irvine. Now stop with the questions, and just let me get you out of here before we're all killed."

Salt led them out of the prison in record time. Holly had never gone back through security so quickly, but apparently wearing a uniform is enough to fool most people. It made Holly think about just how easy it would have been for somebody else to infiltrate the prison. Maximum Security suddenly didn't seem so secure. But, as soon as they were outside and far enough away from the prison, Holly confronted Salt.  
"What the hell is going on?!" She shouted. Salt just looked back at her.  
"You stirred up the Hornet's nest, that's what. Looking into Ferran Goy and Axl Snow, they know you're onto them. You've made yourself a target."  
"How do I know you're not still one of them, playing the part to gain my trust?"  
Salt didn't answer immediately, so Holly pushed him over, into the gravel, and then stood over him. Salt carefully picked himself off the floor, but Holly's gaze was stuck to him.  
"I still listen to the messages, I'm still dialled in. After the LEP attacks, the chatter went dead. Nothing for 3 months. I thought they might have given up or gone to ground, but no. Because today the messages started up again, and the volume was immense. And there was one name that kept popping out at me- yours. They knew you were coming to the prison, I don't know how but they did. I had to get there first because they were going to kill you! They knew you would go into Snow's cell to investigate. Irvine was a liability and so they had him killed. And you were next."  
"How?" Was all Holly asked. "There was nobody else there. We would have sounded the alarm and the guards would have come."  
"No!" Salt put his hand over his face, almost crying out in exasperation. "That's what they wanted you to do! Don't you see, there are still corrupt elements within the prison. Ferran Goy was not the only one. One message stood out to me, as soon as they knew. Someone in here is dirty, and they knew you would investigate. They rigged up the alarm system so that it instead of alerting the guards, it would open up all of the prison cells and set the prisoners loose. I don't need to explain to you that violent murderers and cops don't mix. Even someone with your skill wouldn't have stood a chance."  
"So what do you expect me to do now, run and hide? Because that isn't happening. I'm going to find out what's happening because nobody else will!"  
"Ahhh you infuriate me sometimes. This is a cover-up that reaches right to the very top of the LEP. Captain at the very least, but the ring leader could well be a Commander or Colonel, I don't know. But if you keep at this, they will not stop coming for you. And that's not a warning, that's a promise."  
Holly looked back at Cecily briefly, who had pretty much shrunk behind her. But behind the timidity was a determination. Holly had been like that in the early days.  
"We are police officers. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't bring whoever did this to justice. I'm not going to stop."  
"Fine" Salt said. By now he had led them to his vehicle, a short way out of the prison. She still didn't trust Salt, but what he said had an air of truth to it.  
"I'm being serious."  
"And I said fine" Salt repeated. "This is your life. It's your funeral."


	9. Change Is Everywhere

**Our heroes are beginning to learn that there is nowhere safe to turn. Soon the conspiracy will have caught up with them completely. And then... Well who knows what could happen.**

"I think it's time for something of a change" Artemis said, not looking up from the Energy Matrix readings he was studying. "I want to go out for dinner."  
Butler raised his head above his newspaper.  
"That's new" He remarked. "You haven't gone out anywhere for the past 3 months."  
"Hence why I said 'change'. Change is a fundamental constant of nature, it is probably about time I followed suit."  
"Why do I not entirely believe that you want to go out to dinner as an innocent change of scenery?"  
"Because you've known me my entire life, and you're used to these things happening."  
"So you are planning something?"  
"Yes Butler" Artemis replied. "I'm planning dinner."  
Butler shook his head before going back to his newspaper, but Artemis didn't go back to his data. He just sat there.  
"I can still feel it."  
"Huh?" Butler said. This time he put the newspaper down completely.  
"The Energy Matrix. I can still feel it, inside of me. It's only small, in the background. To a normal person it would be an inconceivable difference, but I can feel it."  
"What does it feel like?"  
"Indescribable, to an extent" Artemis smiled. "It puts me on edge, ever so slightly. I feel like somebody is trying to wind me up, just to watch me explode."  
"I should tell Artemis Sr.." Butler said, starting to get up, but Artemis stopped him.  
"Don't tell him, not now. He'd shut the entire experiment down. I'm close to a breakthrough here, I need to run the test again."  
"Artemis, are you sure that is wise?" Butler asked, but nonetheless followed. "You've already been in there once today."  
"I was only in for a short amount of time. I need to go in for longer, that way I can go deeper. I'm almost there, I can feel it."

Butler remembered the story Holly had told him about the attack on Haven, of Flower Kevoor. It had driven her mad, so much so that she believed her own hype. But more than that, it had brought her into a symbiotic relationship with the Matrix itself, where she was no longer Flower Kevoor, but a puppet of the Energy Matrix's design. If Holly had left out names whilst telling the tale, Butler was almost certain it was starting to apply to Artemis. Artemis is a genius, sure. But a genius without their own self control is no longer just a genius, they're a menace. And Butler wasn't going to let Artemis do that to himself.

Masek followed the path all the way back to where they started, at the Chamber, but he realised very quickly that he wasn't the only person there.  
"We heard the gunshots" Cable said. "I tracked back here where I met up with Scarlett. We got to the chamber where we found these two jokers trying to break down the door."  
Cable pointed to the floor infront of him, to the bodies of two dead people, both of whom had been armed with fully automatic assault rifles.  
"They put up a fight. We had no choice."  
"I spoke to Maxwell" Masek blurted out. He had wondered how he'd tell them, apparently just shouting it out did the trick.  
"Maxwell?" Scarlett asked. "As in Wyatt Munroe's Corey Maxwell. The pain in the ass that once tried to set a bomb off inside this building. You spoke to him?"  
"More like he spoke to me, and with a gun pointed at me too."  
"But if Maxwell was here, that means Wyatt Munroe must be here too! Surely?"  
"As Corey Maxwell was at pains to tell me, Wyatt Munroe is dead. The way he got angry when I suggested otherwise, I think he genuinely wants to believe Munroe is dead."  
"What did he say?" Cable asked.  
"Not much. Really not much. I was following the sound of the shots too, but as I was furthest away, my path took me into the Artefact room. The place was a mess, had been tossed from top to bottom. They were looking for something. I don't know if they got it- Maxwell certainly didn't have it- but I think they were looking for The Obelisk."  
"That was a hefty piece of equipment, I remember it coming in. But if Maxwell hadn't taken it..."  
As Cable spoke, Masek had been looking around the area. There had been something bothering him, but now he realised exactly what it was.  
"Guys. Where's Jenna?"  
"That's something else we needed to tell you" Scarlett said, somewhat tentatively. "We don't know."

"You don't know?" Masek asked. Both Cable and Scarlett looked at him with somewhat regretful expressions.  
"No" Scarlett said. "We don't know. She wasn't here when we got here, and she hasn't turned up since. She wasn't in her section either."  
"OK, so we don't know. But we can find out."  
"How?" Cable asked.  
"A little something from Artemis. After the problems with Wyatt Munroe infiltrating the FRA and then disappearing, myself and Artemis collectively decided that it was in the best interests of this organisation to make sure that it doesn't happen again. So, as a new protocol, every member of the Fairy Retrieval Agency- that would be us- has a tracking device implanted into our brains. That way we can't actually disappear, and any attempt to dispose of the device would kill us. It's as close to foolproof as you're ever going to get. We didn't tell you of course, we couldn't risk letting you know during the implementation process incase you were also double agents."  
"Great" Cable said, not looking best pleased.  
"But we can use it to track Jenna" Masek replied. "Which is entirely why we had them implanted."  
Masek started to run off towards the tech unit, and everyone else followed. By the time Cable and Scarlett had caught up, Masek was already typing away on the keyboard, bringing up window after window of firewalls and protocol systems.  
"This was never intended to be something anybody but us could access" He explained. "Emergency only, which is exactly what this is."  
"This better work" Cable said, getting shifty. Masek could understand that he'd be the most nervous about trying to find her, for better or worse.  
"Almost there" Masek said. He hit the enter key one last time, and a map popped onto the screen.  
"Where is that?" Scarlett asked. "All I see is desert."  
"Arizona" Masek said. "She's in Arizona. How the bloody hell did she get there?"  
"I don't know" Cable said, "But I'm going to go and get her."  
But as Cable went to leave, Masek grabbed his arm.  
"This could be a trap. They could be trying to lure us out using Jenna as bait. We don't know what we would find if we teleported there."  
"With the greatest of respect, I don't care. She's my girlfriend dammit, if she is in danger then I'm not just going to leave her!"  
"Fine, but then we're coming with you."  
"No" Cable said. "If it is a trap, I don't want to endanger your lives too."  
"Tough luck. I'm your superior, and I say we're coming with you. Scarlett, prep the Chamber for a teleportation. Set the co-ordinates to X-45443, Y-01883, Arizona."  
"Got it" Scarlett said, walking off towards the Chamber.  
"We'll find her" Masek said. "I promise you that Cable. We'll find her."

 **Oh Jenna. Poor, sweet Jenna... Whatever could have happened to you?**


	10. Secret Rooms And Double Lives

**"He led a double life. Did that make him a liar? He did not feel a liar. He was a man of two truths."- Iris Murdoch**

"You know Holly, based on what Chriton Salt has told us, I've calculated a 65% chance that the person behind the attacks could be Colonel Julian Scar."  
"No chance" Holly replied. "It's not Scar."  
"How do you know?" Cecily asked.  
"You're going to hate me for saying this" Holly said, looking at her protégé. "Gut feeling."  
"Look at the facts Holly" Cecily said, in something of a more serious tone. "There were only a certain number of people who knew we were going to the prison, and one of them was Colonel Scar. He would have clearance and resources."  
"He has no links to either Ferran Goy or Axl Snow. Besides, I know the Colonel. I know he wouldn't be behind anything like this."  
"Precisely, you know him. And he knows you and the fact that you're not going to give this up. Hence why he would want you dead."  
"You know" Salt said from upfront, "The young one back there has a point."  
"This 'young one' has a name" Cecily replied sternly.  
"I honestly don't care what your name is. But you bring up some valid points. I'm not saying go all guns blazing on the Colonel, but you can't discount him either. Honestly, you can't discount anybody still inside the force."  
"Fine" Holly said. "But putting that on the backburner, I want to go take a look around Ferran Goy's house."  
"Why?" Cecily asked. "Forensics already looked around there and found nothing."  
"Precisely. They found nothing. I'm betting there's something there that I can find."  
"Oh good" Salt said sarcastically. "I'm not going in there with you."  
"I don't want you there."  
"OK, well that was easy. You'll have to find your own way back too, I'm not babysitting you 24/7 whilst you sign off your death wishes."  
"Just get us there" Holly said. "Then you can disappear again for however long it'll be this time."

Ferran Goy's house was fairly similar in design to Holly's, which made breaking into it somewhat easier. Infact, Ferran Goy lived in the same neighbourhood to Holly, something that made her realise she didn't actually really know that many people near where she lived.  
"Let's be careful" Holly said. "Don't touch anything if you don't have to."  
"That's slightly difficult when you're searching for something" Cecily said. Holly agreed, but the last thing she wanted was for them to get caught. If her and Cecily, and to a lesser extent Foaly, were the only people in the inner circle, then having 2 of the 3 behind bars for breaking and entering wouldn't do them any good at all. Especially not if the people on the inside were working against them. This kind of situation only ever usually happened when Opal Koboi was around, but she was dead. And she was actually dead, unlike Chriton Salt. Artemis had made sure of it with a mounted rifle inside the security camera, a trick he had taken from Flower Kevoor and Wing Commander Vinyaya's untimely death. "If you can't win with your own methods, adapt" Artemis had said when he explained what he'd done in there to Holly. It had been one hell of an operation, and not a single person inside Solenheim had known there were going to be fairies involved- nor did a single one of them come out of it knowing any different.  
"Holly" Cecily said, bringing Holly back to reality. "I've searched upstairs, but I have nothing. Nothing that indicates anything out of the ordinary, anyway. Do you want me to come and help you down here?"  
"Yeah, come on down Cecily" Holly said. "I've just got the main living area to get through."  
Holly continued to scan around the room as Cecily made her way downstairs. Ferran Goy's house was fairly pristine. It had all of the essentials; A coffee table, a sofa, a TV. Everything looked nice. There wasn't anything that couldn't be bought on his salary, so no sign of money being funnelled his way. There was no indication that anything was wrong. Except, despite all the normality, something felt off. Something Holly couldn't quite put her finger on.

The bookcase. Of course, it was the bookcase.

Everything in Ferran Goy's living room, and pretty much his house, was painted or finished in light colours. His wall were white, his coffee table transparent, his sofa a light cream. And yet, in the corner of the room, stood a very large, dark brown, wooden bookcase. It stood out, and to someone like Holly, that's always a warning flag. Forensics wouldn't have cared, they'd just be there for the fingerprints and DNA. But to Holly, this was it. This was the clue she had been looking for.  
"Cecily, come and take a look at this bookcase with me" Holly called over. The young elf soon joined her, but that was about as much as she did.  
"That's a very nice bookcase" Cecily offered. "Fairly old, I'd say maybe 200 years? Doesn't fit with any of the other decorations, so must have been passed down to him or something, that's the only reason I can think of why he kept it. But it's just a bookcase?"  
"Yes Cecily, but that's my point. It doesn't fit. There aren't even that many books on it."  
"People get attached to things."  
"Maybe so" Holly said, "But I still want to take a closer look. Start removing the books."  
"I thought you said you didn't want to disturb anything?" Cecily asked, giving off something of a confused, contorted facial expression, but did it none the less. There weren't many books to remove, but they were careful. Holly eventually reached the very centre, a large, dusty, blue book that had no title on the spine. She prepared to lift it off, but it wouldn't move. She tried again, but it wouldn't go. She tried pulling it up, pushing it down, tipping it over. It wouldn't go. It was only when she pushed it inwards that something clicked in the bookcase, and the whole thing started to twist.  
"Secret room" Cecily said in awe.  
"And the only people with secret rooms" Holly said, "Are people who have something to hide."

It was dark in the secret room. Holly spent a few seconds fumbling around for a light switch, and when she eventually found it, she almost tripped over a box on the floor for her trouble. But once she had turned the lights on, her jaw dropped.  
"Oh wow" Cecily said, "Now we know why Ferran Goy was so willing to turn to the other side."  
Holly agreed. All around her, pictures and posters, magazines and data tablets. There was one thing in common with all of them; Their anti-police sentiment. There was a giant map on the wall with pins in all points over the last year where a police officer had been attacked. It was as extensive as it was disturbing.  
"Ferran Goy was an anti-police anarchist" Holly said, her voice hollow as she tried to take everything in. "He didn't need money, he just needed the promise of the one thing he wanted most, for the police to be taken down."  
"To think" Cecily said, "Whilst he was a prison guard, he probably had more in common with the prisoners than the rest of his colleagues. No wonder he was helping get them released."  
Holly walked over to one of the other walls, where several newspaper clippings had been pinned to the wall. They were all articles of riots from the surface dating back 20, 30 years.  
"This solves one of our problems" Holly said, "But not another. We still don't know who the ringleader was, and until we do, the entire Lower Elements is still in danger."  
"Holly, I've found something else" Cecily said, beckoning her over.  
"Letters" Holly said as Cecily handed her the pile. "Lots and lots of letters."  
"They're all from the same person, never gives a name but signs off as 'M'. I've only skimmed through, but I think it's fairly clear that this person is the instigator, our ringleader."  
"They're handwritten. That's good, no that's very good for us. I can send these to Foaly and have him put them through the handwriting recognition software he developed. If it's from someone inside the LEP, we'll soon find out who."  
Holly looked at her watch. It was going into the evening, which means it was almost time for her video call with Artemis. She couldn't miss that.  
"Cecily, bag the letters, take them over to Foaly and get him on this right away. I don't trust the evidence in this place to still be here tomorrow."

 **"Sometimes the people with the greatest potential often take the longest to find their path because their sensitivity is a double edged sword- it lives at the heart of their brilliance, but it also makes them more susceptible to life's pain. Good thing we aren't being penalised for handing in our purpose late. The soul doesn't know a thing about deadlines"- Jeff Brown**


	11. Lost And Found

**"Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future"- Oscar Wilde.**

 **Arizona, USA.**

Sand. Nothing but sand for miles around. No signs of life anywhere, no any sign that there ever was a civilisation. Masek almost felt as if he'd stepped back in time, to an age before humanity had control of the Earth. It was a bit dry, but Masek liked it. It was simple.  
"How far away from Jenna's signal are we?" Cable asked.  
"A kilometre" Masek replied. "I wanted to take us a bit further out, just incase. But all we have here is desert, so I think it's safe to advance. The signal is... That way. Just over the crest."  
"She must be over the crest then" Cable said, setting off, but Masek grabbed him before he could go too far.  
"Cable, wait. We don't know what's over that crest. There could still be people guarding her or worse."  
"I have to do this" Cable replied, snatching his arm away. He ran to the edge of the crest, but as soon as he got there, he turned away. Masek ran over to him.  
"Don't look" Cable said, "Just, just don't look."  
"Cable?" Masek asked, but Cable had not only gone completely white, but looked as if he was going to pass out, so Masek left him to Scarlett and walked over to the crest himself.

When he saw it, Masek almost threw up. He wanted to look away but he couldn't, the sight was as captivating as it was horrifying. He put a hand over his face to shield his eyes from the flames as the smoke rose into the air. They hadn't realised before because of the sun's glare, but now it was all too obvious. The smell of burnt flesh and petrol carried over to Masek, who had to stop himself from gagging again. It was then he remembered Cable up above; He saw it first, before any of them knew. They had been expecting her to be captured or something, and even though Masek had known there was the possibility she could be dead, he hadn't expected to find her strapped to a large wooden cross and set on fire. Nothing could prepare you for that. When he was ready to look at it again, properly this time, he realised that it wasn't just the burning cross infront of him, but also something else in the sand, like a signpost. Cautiously, Masek made his way towards it, making sure to stay as far away from the flames as possible. When he got there, he dusted it off and picked it up. There was text, in the middle of the sign.

 **By Judas' hand  
I have returned  
All the unworthy will die  
And the traitors will burn**

"Oh Jenna" Masek said, "I'm so sorry. This is my fault. I should have made sure he was dead the first time, but I promise this time he is going to die, and he is going to suffer for this."  
Masek turned and walked away. There was nothing else he could do other than console Cable, and start planning for their next move. They had to find Wyatt Munroe whatever it took, and they had to do it fast.

 **Fowl Manor**

The universe, all around him. Everywhere he looked, he could see the stars and the planets and the gas and the dust and the light and the darkness and the dirt and the seeds and the grass and the flowers and the pain and the suffering and the hope and the hatred and the desire and the ambition and the despair and the hopelessness. He saw the sun and the moon in an ever darkening sky, a violet crimson streak across all of reality that was drawing him in. Everything and nothing all at the same time. Everywhere he looked, he couldn't escape it. He saw the birth of the universe and how it all ends, and everything in-between. All of time and all of creation. He could see the universe.

And then, in an instant, it was gone again.

"Artemis?"  
The word rang out in his head as Butler stood infront of him.  
"Artemis?"  
"I'm here Butler" Artemis replied.  
"Did it work?"  
Artemis extended a shaky hand and removed the contacts from his skin.  
"Butler, I need you to hit me. Preferably quite hard."  
"Excuse me?" Butler said, standing warily.  
"Hit me, with your fist. Right here" Artemis replied, pointing to the side of his neck. "It'll knock me out for a few seconds but it's necessary. Hit me."  
So Butler, without a further word said, took one step forward and promptly knocked Artemis cold. But, true to his word, just a few seconds later he was up and on his feet. This time when he extended a hand, it was no longer shaking.  
"Artemis" Butler asked, keeping his wary tone. "What did you do?"  
"It was just residual energy from the Matrix, needed to get it out of my system. And, now that it's done, I have one more thing to ask you Butler. Under no circumstances am I ever to be connected to the Energy Matrix ever again, is that understood? It's too powerful, even for me. I could feel my control slipping away, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Infact, nobody is ever allowed to use that Matrix, ever again. We can't destroy it, you can't destroy energy, but we can make sure nobody ever uses it again, at least not on themselves. We could use it as a power source? Maybe. But regardless, this is a primary directive, nothing can override it under any circumstances."  
"I understand" Butler said simply. Artemis nodded his acknowledgment, and then they were back to normal.  
"What's the time?" Artemis asked himself, looking at his watch. "I think it might just be about time that we head out to dinner."  
"I'm driving" Butler said, still not comfortable enough with Artemis behind the wheel, especially not after what had just happened.  
"Fine" Artemis replied. "One day you will let me drive, I know it."  
"Yes, the day when I'm confident you're not going to end up putting the car in a hedge. That day is probably not going to be any time soon."  
"Very well. You can choose where we go, by the way."  
Butler raised an eyebrow. "In that case, I believe a trip to _Joe's Steakhouse_ is in order."  
"Wonderful choice Butler. Shall we get going?"  
Butler led Artemis out of Fowl Manor and towards the rather expensive Bentley parked beside the residence. But, suddenly, a thought struck him.  
"Artemis, won't this evening out clash with your video call to Holly?"  
"Yes it will Butler, but that's nothing to worry about. Provisions have been made. Everything will work out, as it always does."

 **The darkness is coming, an evil that can rival even Artemis. This is but the first strike on his return, and he's not going to stop until he has completed his goal... No matter who gets in the way.**


	12. Hunted

**"There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment"- Hunter S. Thompson**

Joe's Steakhouse wasn't somewhere you would expect a man like Artemis Fowl to frequent- it wasn't posh or fancy or reserved only for the rich and famous. It was just a Steakhouse. But it was somewhere that Butler had taken Artemis to many times during his childhood, because they did damn good food and the waiters weren't so afraid of Butler that they refused to serve them, which had happened in other places. But, as Artemis had become older, and he had begun more and more elaborate criminal schemes, the idea of taking him out for a casual meal had become something of a rarity. Infact it had become an almost non-existent option in the past year or so, which is what gave Butler the feeling they weren't just there for the food. Still, when Artemis had told him that he could choose the destination, there wasn't going to be any contest. Butler suspected Artemis had already known where he was going to choose before he had even chosen it.  
"BUTLER!" Boomed a voice from the door. Butler smiled- something just as rare as them going out for dinner- when he realised it was Marco, son of owner Joe and the guy who practically ran the place these days.  
"It's nice to see you Marco" Butler said.  
"It's good to see you here" Marco said. "Artemis."  
"Marco" Artemis said, nodding lightly.  
"It's nice to see you haven't changed a bit, Artemis" Marco said, laughing quietly to himself.  
"You'd be surprised" Butler said. Marco looked at Butler, then Artemis, then back at Butler, before leading them inside and to a table.  
"What do we do now?" Butler asked.  
"We order dinner, Butler" Artemis said. "That is, after all, why we're here."

Dinner actually passed fairly smoothly. They ordered, they ate, they drank. There was even the addition of a little bit of small talk, though nothing that could be considered overboard. Butler was beginning to wonder if this had actually just been an evening out to dinner after all, when 2 men in dark suits walked into the Steakhouse. Butler could instantly tell by the way they were eyeing everybody up and taking a long way round to the bar that they weren't just here for a drink. Butler, making sure not to make any eye contact with the new people, made a discreet signal to Artemis, but Artemis wasn't paying attention. No, Artemis was too busy making his own signals to the barman. Butler knew those signals, which meant that not only had Artemis noticed it too, but he knew that those people were going to arrive at some point. Butler smiled inwardly, knowing what was about to happen as the men took sips of their water. A few minutes passed where nothing in particular changed, but slowly the 2 mysterious guests began to rock and sway, until they both passed out at the bar.  
"Time for us to go" Artemis said, grabbing his coat as he stood up.  
"Who were they?" Butler asked.  
"Just people. Scouts, I suppose I should call them. The first line of covert attack, although they weren't very good at being covert, I have to say. But it does prove my suspicion correct, which means that the main event is yet to come."  
"Why do I not like where this is going?"  
"Because, Butler, I'm afraid you're going to have to shoot some people so that they don't shoot you first."

As soon as Artemis got into the car, his phone began to ring. He motioned for Butler to step on it, before taking the call. He knew who it was immediately.  
"Masek."  
"Artemis" Masek's voice was hollow, empty. "He... He's back. I don't know how, but he is and-"  
"I know" Artemis replied. "You were right when you thought somebody wanted you out of HQ, he did, because he was looking for something. He didn't get it, so now he's coming after me."  
"Artemis" Masek said, having managed to calm himself down a little bit, "He killed Jenna. He killed her in cold blood, for nothing. Just so he could make the point to us that he was alive!"  
"I know" Artemis said, again. "But you're wrong. He didn't kill her just to make a point, he killed her because she is the reason he doesn't have the Obelisk. She teleported it to me, and we were going to take it someplace secure, but he hijacked the teleport stream and took her before we could. He must have thought she still had the Obelisk, but now that he knows she didn't, he's coming after me."  
There was a pause. Artemis could still hear Masek breathing, probably contemplating what he said.  
"What do you want us to do?"  
"Get back to HQ, and find out wherever Wyatt Munroe is based. I can send you the information I have on his teleportation path, the rest will be up to you. We have to stop Wyatt Munroe before he gets his hands on the Obelisk."  
"Do you know what he wants to use the Obelisk for?"  
"No" Artemis said bluntly. "But this is somebody who wants to bring nothing but death and destruction to the Lower Elements and any of its allies. Whatever he's planning, it isn't going to be good."

Butler and Artemis got back to Fowl Manor in what was close to record time. Artemis Sr. was out of the door and ready to greet them.  
"Get everybody out of the Manor" Artemis said, without even bothering to greet his father.  
"Artemis?"  
"I said get everybody out, and that's a priority."  
"Artemis" His father said, "What is going on?"  
Artemis sighed. "Honestly, some people are coming to try and kill me, so if you wouldn't mind, I don't have much time to talk. Get everybody out of the house."  
Artemis Sr. followed Artemis into the Manor, staying close behind.  
"Nobody here is leaving until you tell me exactly what is going on."  
"OK, fine" Artemis said, stopping to face his father. "Do you remember when I told you about The People? The fairies? The things I know, for me to know them is exceedingly dangerous. And now that danger is being realised, because I know something that somebody wants, and they want to get it out of me by any means necessary, and that puts you all in danger. So leave!"  
Artemis had been watching his father's face closely as he had told him what was going on, and most of it had been masked by a wall of nothingness. But deep below, as he mentioned The People, there was one glimmer of emotion rising to the surface- realisation.  
"If that is the case" Artemis Sr. said, "Then I am not leaving either. Nobody threatens my family and gets away with it."  
"No" Artemis said. "You have to take mother and get to the safehouse. This is not your fight."  
"Stevens can take her" Artemis Sr. said. "As luck would have it, I have a squadron here for a briefing. Now they can have a new mission, to help protect us. I am not going anywhere."  
"I can see I'm not going to move you" Artemis conceded, "But we do not have much time. We have to get ready and I have to make a phone call."  
"What do we need?"  
"We need what every good man needs for a war. We need to win."

 **"Power is neither good nor evil, but its user makes it so"- Erin Hunter**


	13. Out Of Sync, Out Of Time

**"Don't watch the clock; Do what it does. Keep going."- Sam Levenson**

Holly had been waiting, but nothing. Something wasn't right. She had a video call with Artemis every day at exactly the same time, without fail. He was like clockwork, and if there was ever a problem, it was on Holly's end. She almost didn't think it was possible for him to be late, but she had been waiting 15 minutes after the time she had expected him to come online, and still nothing. There had been no warning from him that he would be late for any reason, no reason in her mind as to why he would be late. The only conclusion she could put together was that something had happened, or that something was happening that meant he couldn't get to his computer. And that worried her, because for something to stop Artemis' routine, it had to be big. It was there, in the back of her mind, the thought that it was something she had done that was the cause of this. Was it her and Cecily looking into Ferran Goy and Axl Snow? Had they gone after Artemis because they had failed to go after her? The thoughts swirled around her head until she could take it no more. She stepped away from her computer, and picked up her phone instead.  
"Cecily, where are you?"  
"Police Plaza, filing stuff away. Why? Shouldn't you be talking to Artemis right now?"  
"He's not answering, which means something is wrong. Get over to the shuttleport immediately, I'll meet you there. We're taking a trip to the surface."  
"What about my visa?" Cecily asked, but Holly cut her off.  
"This is an emergency, forget about a visa. Just pack your Neutrino and get over to the port. We need to find out what's going on."


	14. Flashpoint

**Castle 3x24: Knockout  
Lockwood: And that was what, your last stand? That's just sad Roy, I'm just gonna kill her anyway.  
Montgomery: No, you're not. And he's not. I saw to that. You're done Lockwood...**

 **We both are.**

Artemis saw the glint in the sky when nobody else could. It was an impossibly small aberration in the atmosphere, but enough for Artemis to work out that it was about to begin. They would have traced him straight here, to Fowl Manor, right where he wanted them. Sure, he would have been a lot happier if his father hadn't decided to stay, but there was a determination in Artemis Sr. that Artemis hadn't seen for a very long time, and he would most certainly not be able to move him from his position. It did come with a bonus in the shape of a squadron of his father's private military. Artemis had initially planned for the attack with just him and Butler in the residence, but now he had a small army of highly trained soldiers, and the battle would be far more equal.  
"What is it?" Butler asked, sensing a change in Artemis.  
"They're here. That glint, just over the horizon, is a helicopter. Two actually. Won't take them long now."  
"In which case" Artemis Sr. said, holding a compact radio. "Time to get ready. Prepare the surface to air missiles!"  
Below them, a row of missiles stood to attention, ready to fire. It was an impressive arsenal, and more than enough to take down two helicopters.  
"It won't all be this easy" Artemis said, reading his father's expression. "This is just the beginning of the assault."  
"How big is their army anyway?"  
"You'd be surprised. Humans and fairies on the whole do not get along, so it's very easy to tell people that fairies exist and that they're a threat to the world as we know it, then watch them all follow you into a battle they don't really know anything about. People will do anything to protect their principles and values. That includes genocide, even if they don't realise that's what they're going to do. I am an exception to this, though I am exceedingly intelligent. Wyatt Munroe is intelligent too, which is why he'll have amassed such a group."  
"You keep mentioning that name, Wyatt Munroe, like it should mean something. Who is he?"  
"He is a bad man and he must be stopped" Artemis replied. "That's all you need to know."

Artemis waited until the helicopters were closer, more visible to everyone, then gave his father the instruction to prepare to fire. The missiles stood up near vertically, the thrusters ignited...

There was a flash of light. An explosion. The grounds infront of Fowl Manor lit up in an instant, an inferno littered with debris. Artemis looked up just in time for another flash of light, one which illuminated the sky above them before detonating on impact, taking out the rest of the ground to air missiles. In that illumination, Artemis got a glimpse of just what had caused the destruction.  
"Oh that is so not fair" He said to nobody in particular. "Why don't I get an orbital strike satellite?"  
"What the hell was that?" Artemis Sr. asked, picking himself off the floor.  
"Strike satellite. Must have had a compact photon beam array or something similar to cause that kind of damage with that kind of attack."  
"They could go straight for the Manor next time, we're open targets."  
"They wouldn't" Artemis said. "They need me alive."  
But as Artemis talked, he suddenly realised one consequence of their lack of surface to air missiles- the helicopters were still coming at them.  
"Everybody down!" Artemis shouted, and then, when nobody reacted. "DOWN!"  
Gunfire ripped through the walls of Fowl Manor, shattering the windows. Butler practically jumped on top of Artemis, shielding him from the onslaught. The gunfire was relentless, and coming from all sides, but Artemis had been right about one thing; They needed him alive, and all of the gunfire was too high to hit any of them. This was just to make a scene.  
"We need to get to the kitchen" Artemis said. "Draw them towards us. But we need to take out those helicopters too."  
"You heard him!" Artemis Sr. shouted, the radio to his unit having been on open communication. "Focus your fire on the two helicopters."

The three of them made their way into the vast kitchen, overturning a large wooden table to act as cover. It was solid oak, and whilst it wasn't impenetrable, it was better than nothing.  
"Sir, we have a group of people entering the Manor through the front entrance, but we can't put up a resistance to them and keep the helicopters away."  
"Focus on the helicopters and that's an order!"  
Artemis could see the men approach the kitchen as they turned into the corridor. They were certainly kitted out for the job, with bullet proof vests and high calibre rifles. But they hadn't quite noticed the group there yet, and kept advancing. Artemis waited until they were about half way down the corridor, then pulled a small trigger from his pocket. When he depressed the button, an entire section of flooring blew out, sending enemy agents flying. Dust and smoke filled the corridor and, in the confusion, this was their chance.  
"Open fire!" Artemis Sr. shouted. Butler took point, picking off targets left, right and centre. Artemis Sr. was slightly less adept, but still a good shot. However, they were having fire returned at them now as the group figured out what was going on, and the table could only take so much.  
"We need to move soon" Butler said. "The study is behind the kitchen, it's our only escape route."  
"That was the plan" Artemis said, his voice almost drowned out by the explosion of sparks above his head as one of the lights blew out. "Prepare to move on my signal, back into the study."  
"What are you going to do?" Butler asked.  
"What I can do to the floor, I can do to the ceiling" Artemis said, but suddenly there was another explosion, an ear piercing sonic boom that went straight through everyone. There was yet another explosion as one of the helicopters tore straight through the wall of Fowl Manor in a fireball, wiping out half of the group advancing down the corridor. Artemis hastily pressed his other trigger, and the entire ceiling came down on top of the helicopter, triggering another explosion.  
"Go, now!" Artemis shouted. Butler tossed a couple of grenades into the already blazing inferno, just incase. There was a creak as the rest of the ceiling gave way, burying everything from the kitchen to the front of the Manor. The whole place was coming down.

"We're trapped in the study" Artemis Sr. said, frantically looking around. "There's no way out here."  
"The vault" Artemis said, and his father looked shocked.  
"Nobody is supposed to know about that."  
"Oh please father. I live here and I'm a genius, you really think I wasn't going to know about it. It's the safest place for us to be."  
Artemis walked over to the bookcase, where a small stone statue sat in one of the corners. It was nicely decorative, but out of place on a bookshelf. Artemis twisted the head of the statue, and the floor in the middle of the room began to depress. Butler began to usher Artemis down the stairs, but Artemis Sr. didn't follow. Artemis broke free of Butler's grip and went to his father.  
"This is my home" Artemis Sr. said. "And this is my problem. I won't let them hurt you because of me."  
"I know" Artemis said. Artemis Sr. looked around in surprise.  
"You know?"  
"It took me a while to figure it out, but I always wondered how they were one step ahead, how they knew about everything. It couldn't have been the FRA, because that came after the attack on Police Plaza. The only thing to do with me that had changed with regards to The People was you. The fact that I had told you. I didn't want to believe it at first, but then I realised that it had to be true, because you wouldn't just take what I said at face value, you would want to research it yourself, to make sure of the facts before knowing what you would do with the information. But knowing about fairies is a dangerous game."  
"You're right" Artemis Sr. said shallowly. "I wanted to believe what you were saying. I had even seen Holly with my own eyes but I had to be sure your version of their history was the right version. That's when I found Wyatt Munroe- he never told me his name, but I'm certain we're talking about the same person; He said he also knew about fairies and could tell me more, but everything he told me about them boiled down to how dangerous they were, how they were a threat to humanity and how dangerous it was that you were involved with them. And everything he said, it all rang true to me. The situations you had been in, they would have been avoided if you had not known Holly. He wanted to know everything about your experiences so that he knew how deep you were, but of course now it's obvious he just wanted information for leverage, to know the weak points of the LEP and of Haven. He even used the LEP attack as proof that it was too dangerous for you to be there! I realised too late that he was the dangerous element, but I will not let him harm you to just advance his beliefs. I should have trusted you Artemis, and now you're in danger because of me. So get into the vault and hide yourself, I'll take care of Wyatt or whoever else breaks through."  
"You don't have to do this" Artemis said. "Get into the vault, and we can fight them off together. I have a plan."  
" This is all my fault. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't make things right. Now go!"  
"This is a mistake" Artemis said.  
"No" Artemis Sr. replied. "I'm correcting the mistake."

There was no way anybody was coming in through the kitchen, so Artemis Sr. knew they had to be coming in through the wall on the other side. So he waited, and sure enough after just a few minutes, the wall came crashing down and four men emerged. Artemis Sr. took aim, ready to take them all on, even if he was outnumbered. But then he recognised one of the men.  
"Maxwell!" He shouted out. "I should have known you'd be here. You always are."  
It was safe to say that Maxwell looked less than impressed.  
"Why does everybody insist on using my second name?! My name is Corey, use it!"  
"Because villains are always referred to by their last names. They sound harsher. You really think people are going to be scared of a guy named Corey?"  
"They should be scared of me because I'm pointing a gun in their face."  
"You're not scary" Artemis Sr. retorted. "It was always the other one that scared me. But he's not here, is he?"  
Maxwell ran his hand through his hair before glaring back to Artemis Sr.  
"You're stalling. You know where it is don't you? You can't hide it forever; I know that it's in this room, or above it or under it. But it's here."  
"You're going nowhere near Artemis."  
"I don't care about Artemis, I care about the Obelisk. But... That must mean Artemis is with the Obelisk. Where is it?"  
"I don't know."  
"Don't lie" Maxwell said, taking a step closer. "You will tell me where the Obelisk is, or I will put a bullet in your liver and you will die very slowly, and in considerable pain."  
Artemis Sr. raised his gun to attention, pointed straight at Maxwell.  
"I will take you all on if I have to."  
Maxwell started to laugh, but it was instantly drowned out by another explosion from behind them. Artemis Sr. took the distraction as his advantage and opened fire on the men. But Maxwell had been right, he was outnumbered, and even though he hit all four, one of them still got off a shot that struck Artemis in the chest, flooring him. Maxwell got up, dusted himself off, then walked over to where Artemis Sr. lay, his gun now pointed at his head.  
"I didn't actually need you to tell me" Maxwell said. "I can find everything just fine by myself. But you're finished."  
"Maybe I am finished" Artemis Sr. groaned as his hand moved to the snub-nosed revolver he had hidden in his sock. "But then again Maxwell, so are you!"


	15. Executing The Plan

**HAPPY 2019 EVERYONE! I PROMISE TO TRY AND NOT LEAVE IT ANOTHER 6 MONTHS UNTIL I UPLOAD THE NEXT CHAPTER.**

Artemis and Butler waited in the safe room, under the study. It was almost like a bomb shelter, big enough for the whole family and stocked with over a year's worth of supplies. Artemis wasn't planning on being in there for a whole year though. He was slightly surprised that it took their attackers as long as 15 minutes to find the way into the safe room, but eventually the creak and groan of the ceiling signalled that they were coming in. Butler raised his weapon, but Artemis told him to lower it.  
"There's too many of them. Besides, we're not in here for a firefight."  
"Then what are we in here for?" Butler asked, begrudgingly putting his gun down.  
"You'll see" Artemis replied, just as the ceiling lowered down fully, and a swarm of armed men flooded the vault. One man, the tallest one there, stepped forward.  
"We have you surrounded. There's nowhere for you to run. You might as well give it up now whilst you're still in control of your own body."  
"Is that a threat?" Artemis asked, raising his eyebrows. "Regardless, I don't know who you are. I was hoping for Wyatt Munroe, or even Corey Maxwell would have sufficed. But not you."  
"Corey is dead and I am next in command" The man said, unmoving.  
"If Corey Maxwell is dead then my father must have got the better of him after all."  
"Your father is also dead."  
"I deduced that" Artemis said coldly. "The fact you're here and he is not told me as much."  
"You will soon join him, but first we need the Obelisk. We know you have it."  
"Ah" Artemis said. "About that. You see I knew that you wanted the Obelisk and would be able to trace its radiation signature, and I knew that you wanted me. So I drew you out here, to the one battleground I knew well, so that I would have an advantage you could not break. But I also knew that this plan was not guaranteed to be a 100% success, and I couldn't risk actually taking the Obelisk with me."  
"Explain!" The man near shouted, his emotional mask coming undone.  
"You all thought you were tracking the Obelisk" Artemis said, pulling a small black tablet out of his back pocket. "But all this time the Obelisk has been nowhere near me. You were following this. That was the whole point of this plan, that I could draw you all here. Because there's one thing you didn't take into account, and that's the fact this vault has so many hiding spots. Hiding spots for one very important person."  
The man simply growled at Artemis. "Who?"  
"Holly Short."  
Without warning, Holly dropped down from the ceiling, a small cylindrical device in her hands.  
"Surprise?" She said, then pushed the button. A bright flash of light enveloped the entire room for a split second. Once it was gone, only Artemis and Holly were left standing.

T he first thing Holly did was run up to Artemis and jump on him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He reciprocated the embrace, and the two of them just held it for what eventually became several minutes. Eventually Artemis broke the embrace, if only to wipe the tears out of Holly's eyes.  
"It is so very good to see you again Holly" Artemis said. He couldn't help the large smile across his face.  
"I've missed you, so much" Holly replied. "I was so worried, with everything that's happened recently, and then I got here and... and... I'm so glad you're OK."  
"I'm fine, Holly. But your concern is touching."  
"I almost forgot you talked like that, brushing off concern as something extra. It's such a nice feeling to be able to hear your voice again, and not just through a computer screen. It's so much better to have you in person. I'm really sorry Artemis, I'm sorry I made us spend so much time apart."  
"You needed space, that is understandable Holly. You have nothing to apologise for."  
"I thought I needed space, but I was wrong. What I really needed was you."  
"Holly" Artemis sat up. "An event as big as losing your- our- unborn child is going to affect you, perhaps in ways you never thought you could be affected. I am a good guard of my emotions, you are not. That is genetics, not opinion. Whether you think now that it was right or not, at the time you made the decision, it was right, and trying to dissuade you from that course of action would have been pointless. "  
Holly sank into Artemis. "I'm so lucky to have you."  
"Likewise" Artemis replied. "But now that you are here, we unfortunately have work to do, so that this threat can be stopped and the person responsible for everything stretching back to the attack on Police Plaza can be brought to justice once and for all. Then we can talk properly, about everything."  
"OK" Holly said. "I saw Chriton Salt. He saved me from what was apparently an orchestrated attempt on my life during a visit to Haven Maximum Security. He's been listening. He thinks this conspiracy goes all the way to the very top of the LEP, and it's all starting up again."  
"That would be because of us. Or rather because of you; I know that you've been looking into the attack on Police Plaza, and I'm certain that you started to get close, and that made you a threat. Equally, we recovered something on the surface that was of importance to them, and they want it back, which is what all of this was about."  
"Talking about this quickly" Holly interrupted. "I do hope whatever device you gave me didn't kill them, because Butler is among the people scattered across the floor."  
"Merely unconscious. It's a DNA bomb of sorts, targets only 100% human DNA, hence why the two of us weren't affected. They'll be out for about 24 hours, give or take. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that there have been two branches to this attack: The 'human' and the 'fairy'. I think it's about time we bring them both together. But before we do, I have one thing to ask. How was your trip?


End file.
